April was unseasonably warm (~20ºC) most days and almost no rain for the whole month.
The two hives in the nearby field will be referred to as no. 1 (previously xxx) & no. 2 (previously yyy) counting from the house.
These were joined by a third on loan from Mary B. This hive is also WBC but with regular brood frame. The queen was very strong with good brood coverage. It had two supers. Queen cells were present so a new brood box containing 11 undrawn 12x14 frames was placed between the existing brood and the supers. The new comb was soon drawn out and the queen started laying in the upper box. The queen was trapped in the upper brood box (between two queen excluders) and one of the frames containing a queen cell was donated to hive no.1.
Hive no. 2 - new brood box...tbc
Hive no. 1 - poor lay. Despateched Q and put in comb from Mary's hive....tbc
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